The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 18, 1987 Page: 2 of 24
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2 Friday, September 18,1987 THRESHER Opinion
Abuse of Rice's
alcohol policy
The only thing worse than a policy that is unfair to students is an
unfair policy about which students aren't informed.
Over the summer, without input from the student body, the Masters
committee made substantial changes in the university's alcohol policy.
Though the adjective "student-enforced" still modified the policy, it
was suddenly much less so.
The new policy stipulated that the campus police would regulate
parties at Rice, and the Masters committee gave the police a checklist
to help them to that end. The checklist required (among other things)
that the police randomly check the identification of student drinkers at
the party to see if they are underage, check that punch at the party is
clearly labeled with its alcoholic content, and check that student
monitors are posted at entrances so that alcohol does not enter or leave
the party.
Further, a new regulation says that college funds cannot be used for
off-campus parties.
What effort did any administrator make to inform returning students
of these changes? Doesn't the administration have a responsibility to
inform students of rule changes in such a controversial and critical area?
Apparently, those responsible for the policy are more concerned with
enforcement and punishment of violations than with improving the
behavior that leads to those violations. Administrators cannot expect a
student to comply with a policy that he or she does not know exists.
Attempts by the campus police to use their checklists at parties early
this year caused a lot of confusion and dissatisfaction. A newly-formed
Alcoholic Policy Advisory Committee, in fact, has now suspended the
checklist pending further evaluation.
Moreover, students were not the only ones uninformed about the new
alcohol policy. Student Association President Kevin Gass reported at
the last S A senate meeting that neither President Rupp nor Assistant to
the President Carl MacDowell knew about the policy changes when the
school year began. To us, this demonstrates a sad lack of both coherent
procedure and clear communication in the construction of the policy.
Fairness demands that administrators make some effort to announce
alcohol policy changes as well as explain the reasoning behind them. No
administrator ever publically let students know that anything was
wrong with the old policy.
We hope the new committee will keep that in mind as it moves toward
devising not just a more effective alcohol policy, but a more sober
method of producing and communicating it.
Pot and kettle
Arizona Governor Evan Mecham announced this week that he is
having aides "look into" a libel suit against Garry Trudeau and the
newspapers that print his strip Doonesbury. Mecham is angry about
certain strips, printed in the Thresher this week, which satirize himself
and the strong citizen's movement that is underway to recall him.
Competent aides surely will inform him that he has no chance of
winning a libel suit, and indeed will embarass himself horribly in the
process by keeping his long list of brainless exploits in the public
spotlight.
Mecham' s speaking of libel becomes ironic when his own actions are
examined. The governor dismissed the people who are urging his recall
as "a bunch of gays." Perhaps some heterosexual citizens in that
movement will look into suing him for slander.
—Mike Raphael
• BUT OF COURSE, HOLINESS,
THERE'S SOMEMN& TO BE
SN kk-v*- EHftUSiASM"
tow
Honor Council lists penalties
The Honor Council would like to
take this opportunity to welcome you
back for another year and remind you
of the commitment we have all made
to the Honor System and to one an-
other.
We would also like to make you
aware of the consensus penalties
agreed upon by this year's council.
These penalties represent what the
Council would recommend in the
"typical case."
The "typical case" has been de-
fined by the honor council as one in
which the accused pleads not guilty,
needs the credit hours in question
(either for his major or distribution),
has commited no previous violations,
and has not pre-meditated the viola-
tion.
We use the "typical case" in our
deliberation on penalty as a spring-
board for our discussion. I would
ONHONOR
by Amy Schwendimann
emphasize that the Honor Council
tries each case individually, and that
we compare the ways in which a par-
ticular case differs from the "typical
case" in order to determine whether
we should recommend a greater or
lesser penalty than the penalty the
consensus calls for.
The Consensus of Penalties for
1987-1988 are as follows:
1. On a take home exam—An "F"
in the course in question and a two
semester suspension.
2. On an in-class exam—An "F" in
the course in question and a one
semester suspension.
3. On a major assignment (papers,
labs, or programs worth 20% or more
of the grade)—"F" in the course in
question, loss of credit (in the course
in question), or semester suspension
(depending on the extent of the viola-
tion).
4. On a minor assignment (home-
work less than 20% of the grade)—
From loss of multiple credit on the
assignment to "F" or loss of credit in
the course (depending on the extent of
the violation).
The Council may append a suspen-
sion clause to any of the above penal-
ties, by which if an accused is found
guilty of a second violation he or she
will automatically be suspended. 1
hope you will look over the consensus
and feel free to approach a Council
member with any questions you may
have.
Alumni do help promote Rice
To the editor:
Paul Angles' guest column in the
Thresher ("Alumni can help solve
University image problem," Sept. 4)
raised several points which deserve a
response from the Association of
Rice Alumni.
I agree that the A.R.A. can and
should play an important role in rais-
ing the level of public awareness of
Rice across the country. It is also
obvious from Angles' comments that
the A.R.A. needs to do a better job of
communicating to the students what it
is already doing to make "the 25,000
alumni (who are) influential leaders
in their businesses and communities"
feel a part of the Rice community.
Angles suggested that the A.R.A.
organize yearly alumni parties around
the country. In fact, the strengthening
of the Rice area clubs throughout the
country has been a major focus of the
Alumni Association the past three
years, and an area in which we have
made considerable progress.
Last.year, in addition to programs
sponsored around the country by the
Admission Office, the Shepherd
School, the Development Office and
the Athletic Department, the A.R.A.
area clubs organized parties in cities
including Portland, San Francisco,
New York City, Fort Worth, Bryan
and Dallas. To date, parties and pro-
THRESHINGITOUT
letters to the editor
grams for the coming year are sched-
uled in Austin, Dallas, Lubbock,
Waco, Bloomington, Kansas City,
Washington, D.C., New York City,
San Diego and Los Angeles. There
parties offer area alumni a chance to
catch up on what's happening on
campus, meet prospective students
and get to know each other better.
Additionally, the A.R.A. has initi-
ated an Alumni Contact Service
across the country for use by students
and alumni seeking career advice and
a friendly contact in a new area. We
have organized a network of over 700
contacts in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago,
Dallas, Denver, Kansas City, New
York City, San Antonio, San Fran-
cisco, St. Louis, Southern California
and Washington, D.C. We will soon
expand the network to include Hous-
ton. Incidentally, this innovative pro-
gram was developed in direct re-
sponse to requests from Rice student
members of our Student Alumni Liai-
son committee.
In addition to the Alumni Associa-
tion, other Rice groups are working to
improve Rice's public relations. The
newly-created University Relations
Department has as one of its purposes
to promote Rice locally and across the
country through a more high profile
media relations campaign.
I am sorry that Angles was asked to
hand copy a computer list of the Los
Angeles area alumni. Since we do not
currently have capability to generate
computer lists in our office, we allow
students to make photocopies of seg-
ments of the computer books. We
hope to enhance our printing capabili -
ties in the near future.
Regarding Angles' statement that
the Alumni Association "gives (sen-
iors) stickers that say 'Rice Ex' and
asks them for a donation," the Alumni
Association is not involved in fund
raising. That is the function of the
Rice Development Office. The
Alumni Association is a volunteer
board which carries out its work
through 12 committees which in-
clude: Archives, Arts, Athletics,
Education, Homecoming, Honors,
Nominations, Publications, Rice
Clubs, Student Alumni Liaison,
Travel and Young Alumni.
I invite students to learn about
what the Alumni Association is doing
and to get involved. You'll have the
opportunity to work for Rice's benefit
and to have fun doing it!
BillMerriman'fi?
President,A.R.A.
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Raphael, Michael J. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 5, Ed. 1 Friday, September 18, 1987, newspaper, September 18, 1987; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245671/m1/2/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.